Something Green in the UAE

Saturday, January 17, 2009

First 24 Hours in India

even before we left sharjah, it was as though we had already arrived in india. there was a mad crowd-cramming chaos at check-in, and the usual total disregard for queuing. we looked around and didn't see any white people in the sharjah airport. odd. i guess whitey flies in at DBX.

everybody on the flight was indian... and male! it was a little uncomfortable. it was kind of like being the only woman on the beach in a bathing suit. (only roxana and jacki know what i mean. eek.)

we arrived safely after about three hours... at 3 AM. the first thing i noticed in India was the smell. it was a wholly new smell. it's like a living animal sprinkled with cumin. and that smell is everywhere. i'm sure it will stick to me and i'll be wafting around dubai with it when i return.

anyway, it was quite fortunate that we arranged in advance to be picked up. the airport was in the middle of a giant slum. we zipped away in a crisp little white car, dodging crater-sized pot-holes and piles of trash. i was surprised to see some people still up at that hour. they had built fires in the streets, and were huddled around to keep the chill off.

i've never seen such slums. (i'll have to talk more about that later. my thoughts are pretty disjointed at the moment.)

we finally arrived at Dicky's place (hotel madhuban) and were shown through a maze of little courtyards and sudden flights of stairs and rambling flowers to our cozy room. CRASH OUT.

there were so many weird noises in the night. dogs howling and weird little melodic beeps and finally the call to prayer. i had never associated india with the call to prayer, but of course there are a lot of muslims here. it was the first noise that my brain could latch on to and recognize, so it was kind of a relief. other than the barking dogs, that is. but that's not much of a relief.

we got up at a reasonable 11:00. took our time having breakfast in the courtyard and getting acquainted with a fat little wiener dog named Bruno. finally walked out the gate and into chaos.

the motorized rickshaws are a teeth-chatteringly wild ride in a traffic pattern that must have been based on some kind of higher math. i did not have any idea what was going on. bicycles, rickshaws, cars, cows, donkeys, kids, goats, everybody weaving in and out at top speed, vying for the first place in line. (we'll excuse the cows; they weren't really much concerned about speed)

meanwhile, everything is blazing past in a blur of colors and crazy smells. particularly that moist animal spicy smell. and then suddenly a putrid sewer smell. hey, look, they have urinals outside! (i'm not kidding). then a death smell. then that seductive indian incense smell coming from a temple.

and i mentioned the colors. jaipur is known as "the pink city." but it's a mass of colors swirling around everywhere, from the saris to the crazy exotic fruit stalls to the printed textiles for sale.

everywhere you look, there's something you've never in your life seen before. like a half-naked man who painted himself red. a dead body covered over with silk being carried through the streets. a bicycle somehow loaded with 20 giant plastic barrels. the biggest moustache you've ever seen, proudly displayed beneath a carefully wrapped turban.

anyway, india is by far the most colorful, most bewildering place i have ever seen. i look forward to the craziness.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Walking Distance (by Matt)

As anyone who knows me will attest to, I like to have the necessities of life within a reasonable walking distance of my home. For me, the necessities of life (outside my front door) include sidewalks, supermarkets, restaurants, cafes/bars, parks, and most importantly, community. I never imaged that I would live in the desert though, especially not a ridiculously wealthy and ostentatious desert like Dubai. This puts a strange spin on what can be within walking distance from your humble or not-so-humble abode.
I’d like to take you on a short walking tour of our goofy Dubai neighborhood.

This is our living room, in which our cozy Christmas tree is currently on display.

This is a nice shot (that Laurel took) of the building across the way, as viewed through our windows. On its first floor on this building is a new little corner store that opened a few days ago. We walked to it last night to buy two zesty lemons.

As any complete and respectable neighborhood will have, here are our local indoor ski slopes. Ski Dubai is only a couple of blocks away, and even though we haven’t yet taken advantage of the powder, it’s the idea of it that enhances our quality of life (ha, ha…).

Here’s our neighborhood mall. The Mall of the Emirates is the very first mall that I have comfortably spent an entire day in without going completely psychotic. It feels quite like a really city, just climatized!

Scaffolding and cranes as far as the eye can see. Dubai is a megalopolis being built all at once, from the ground up, and our neighborhood didn’t escape the frenzy.

Lu Lu’s Hypermarket!!! We bought a TV here. I’d consider that a necessity of life, wouldn’t you?

We have a smoggy view of the famous buildings along Sheikh Zayed Road, including the new Dubai Tower, which is the tallest building in the world. I bet you can’t guess which one it is?